In some areas, access to basic services from the government is growing but the services being provided are not reliable. This is more so in the provision of water to households, which faces major disruptions.

South Africa's population has increased from 51.7 million in 2011 to 62 million in 2022, and the government is increasingly finding it difficult to provide basic services that are reliable and face no major disruptions to the populace.

The census 2022, which was conducted by Statistics South Africa and the findings of which were unveiled on Tuesday 10 October, has found the government's provision of most basic services to the population has largely increased since 2011. This was when the last census was conducted by Statistics South Africa.

Good news

The good news is that between 2011 and 2022, more households had access to piped water and those without water have been declining. Over this period, more households had access to a flush toilet while the use of bucket toilets was also reported to have declined. And the proportion of households being electrified and using electricity has also increased.

Bad news

But the bad news is that while access to services from the government is growing, the services being provided are not reliable. This is more so in the provision of piped water to households, which faces major disruptions.

The census has found that the number of households...